CNN Producers Arrested Trying to Get into World Trade Center Site to Cover Recent Break-ins of the WTC Site

Two CNN producers have failed at something a set of BASE jumpers and a 16-year-old parkour enthusiast succeeded in doing: getting past security and scaling the World Trade Center.

Reuters reports that 35-year-old Yon Pomrenze and 26-year-old Conner Fieldman Boals were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, obstruction of governmental administration, and disorderly conduct after attempting to bypass security at the site not once, not twice, but three times. The last attempt wasn’t the charm.

The producer’s first attempt was pretty straightforward–they simply walked up to a main gate and tried to enter the premises. Unsurprisingly, the pair was stopped by a Port Authority officer and a New Jersey Police officer. According to those officials, the CNN producers argued that they should be able to get in if a 16-year-old kid could get in.

Of course, the producers were referencing Justin Casquejo, the teenager who was able to slip past security, make his way to the top of the new WTC, traverse the spire, and snap some selfies.

Rebuffed but resolute, Pomrenze and Boals reportedly tried to scale a fence in break-in attempt number two–but were caught.

Finally, the pair apparently tried to muscle their way through a manned gate and were subsequently arrested.

Not exactly the smoothest tactics, guys. The aforementioned Casquejo had to crawl through a hole in a fence, possibly don a construction uniform to hitch a ride up an elevator, and sneak past a sleeping guard. That’s how to do it.

A spokesperson for CNN said that the producers were looking into doing a story on the recent security breaches at the World Trade Center:

They were not asked to sneak onto the WTC site. They were in the surrounding area to do a story about the recent incidents at the WTC and other sites–and the notion that daredevils are being drawn to them.